This 2000 photo shows the private beach that Elizabeth McInnis said she once enjoyed at her Belle Fontaine Beach property. The beach has since completely washed away, she said. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth McInnis)

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi - Since the county and Corps of Engineers constructed a new jetty and bulkhead on Belle Fontaine Beach resident Elizabeth McInnis' property, the private beach washed away and the land sank, she told Jackson County supervisors on Tuesday morning.

The property, on the far west end of the beach, already had a bulkhead, she said, when the county approached her about a new bulkhead and jetty in 2000.

"I already had a bulkhead that was there holding up my private beach," she told supervisors. "I had a beautiful, private beach and all types of vegetation ... that helped to build up my property and beach."

This 2013 photo shows that Elizabeth McInnis' private beach has washed away. The beach once stood on the left side of this bulkhead. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth McInnis)

McInnis spoke Tuesday during the public comments portion of the regular board meeting in Pascagoula.

"Me and my neighbors fought it for about a year and a half," she said, but she eventually agreed to grant a permanent easement for the bulkhead area only in 2003.

Since the bulkhead was rebuilt and the jetty installed, McInnis said, the bulkhead is damaged and the bulkhead caps missing. She said she has lost her private beach, and her land is sinking.

Broken bottles and dead fish also constantly get caught in the bulkhead, she said.

"It's a nightmare," she said. "This situation has affected me more than BP or (Hurricane) Katrina."

Supervisor John McKay said McInnis has been helpful to the county in the past and that the bulkhead should be better maintained.

She granted easements and allowed equipment to be staged on the land when the jetty and bulkhead were being constructed, he said.

The reason for the jetty to be installed initially was to help maintain the beach, McKay said.

County Administrator Brian Fulton told McInnis that the county is aware of the issues and has made several assessments of the damage.

The county has written a project worksheet to possibly get some funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make repairs, he said.

The county plans to replenish the sand, replace the bulkhead caps and repair the damaged areas of the bulkhead and jetty, Fulton said.

McInnis, who has been trying to sell the property for several years to no avail, said she would like the county to purchase the property or help her find a buyer.

Also at Tuesday's board meeting, supervisors agreed to send some surplus bridge materials to George County to help after the recent rains.

"They're in a bind," Road Manager Joe O'Neal told supervisors.

The county will send them used concrete bridge spans, materials that O'Neal said were removed from Jackson County bridges during bridge replacement projects.

Ken Flanagan, George County's community development and communications director, said the materials will go to District 3 to improve the Wilkerson's Ferry Road bridge, which was damaged by Hurricane Isaac rains and the heavy rain last week.

"It's a much needed donation," Flanagan said. "That bridge has been in need of repair for quite a long time."